Debates about the legacy of colonialism in France are not new, but they have taken on new urgency in the wake of recent terrorist attacks. Responding to acts of religious and racial violence in 2005, 2010, and 2015 and beyond, the essays in this volume pit French ideals against government-sponsored revisionist decrees that have exacerbated tensions, complicated the process of establishing and recording national memory, and triggered divisive debates on what it means to identify as French. As they document the checkered legacy of French colonialism, the contributors raise questions about France and the contemporary role of Islam, the banlieues, immigration, race, history, pedagogy, and the future of the Republic. This innovative volume reconsiders the cultural, economic, political, and social realities facing global French citizens today and includes contributions by Achille Mbembe, Benjamin Stora, Françoise Vergès, Alec Hargreaves, Elsa Dorlin, and Alain Mabanckou, among others. "Highly recommended."― Choice "This book brings together a vast array of scholars around the question of colonial fracture. Ignoring this past has only served to further exacerbate societal tensions. As the contributors underscore, facing this past head on will assist France in the process of understanding society today."― Altermondes "The contributors to this book raise the following questions: Is there such a thing as a colonial facture? Can France overcome this identity crisis? What we have is a society that remains uncertain when it comes to its future, precisely because it has been ubale to reckon with its past."― Zurban "An intelligent, rich, carefully constructed, and thoughtful work that will prove all the more important at this time in history when the debate on colonialism occupies center stage, often at the service of political ends. This book is first and foremost an attempt to rethink the ways in which the French colonial project became integral to 19th century Republican discourse and the shape of today's reality."― Télérama Nicolas Bancel is Professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and codirector of the ACHAC Research Group. Pascal Blanchard is a historian and researcher at the Laboratoire Communication et Politique (Paris, France, CNRS), codirector of the ACHAC Research Group, and a documentary filmmaker. Dominic Thomas is Madeleine L. Letessier Professor and Chair of the Department of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA. Alexis Pernsteiner is a freelance editor and translator: www.pernsteinertranslations.com. Her translations include Colonial Culture in France since the Revolution (IUP). The Colonial Legacy in France Fracture, Rupture, and Apartheid By Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard, Dominic Thomas, Alexis Pernsteiner Indiana University Press Copyright © 2017 Indiana University Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-253-02625-5 Contents Note on Translation, xi, Introduction: A Decade of Postcolonial Crisis: Fracture, Rupture, and Apartheid (2005–2015) / Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard, and Dominic Thomas, 1, Part I. Colonial Fracture / 2005, 1.1. The Emergence of the Colonial, 1. The Republican Origins of the Colonial Fracture / Nicolas Bancel and Pascal Blanchard, 43, 2. When a (War) Memory Hides Another (Colonial) Memory / Benjamin Stora, 53, 3. A Difficult History: A Brief Historiography of the Colonial and Postcolonial Situation / Nicolas Bancel, 61, 4. Reducing the Republic's Native to the Body / Nacira Guénif-Souilamas, 69, 5. Colonization and Immigration: "Blind Spots" in the History Classroom / Sandrine Lemaire, 78, 6. Memory Wars: A Study of the Intersection between History and Media / Pascal Blanchard and Isabelle Veyrat-Masson, 89, 1.2. The Return of the Colonial, 7. The Enemy Within: The Construction of the "Arab" in the Media / Thomas Deltombe and Mathieu Rigouste, 115, 8. Islam and the Republic: A Long, Uneasy History / Anna Bozzo, 123, 9. The Republic, Colonization, and Beyond ... / Michel Wieviorka, 130, 10. Colonial Natives and Indigents: From the Colonial "Civilizing Mission" to Humanitarian Action / Rony Brauman, 137, 11. The Banlieues as a Colonial Theater, or the Colonial Fracture in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods / Didier Lapeyronnie, 144, 12. The Pitfalls of Colonial Memory / Nicolas Bancel and Pascal Blanchard, 153, 13. Overseas France: A Vestige of the Republican Colonial Utopia? / Françoise Vergès, 165, Part II. Postcolonial Ruptures / 2010, 2.1. Debating the Colonial Legacy, 14. Rethinking Politics in the French Overseas Departments / Jacky Dahomay, 175, 15. "Race," Ethnicization, and Discrimination: Is History Repeating Itself or Is This a Postcolonial Peculiarity? / Patrick Simon, 187, 16. From the Empire to the Republic: "French Islam" / Valérie Amiraux, 198, 17. Immigration: From Métèques to Foreigners / Yvan Gastaut, 209, 18. Inequality between Humans: From "Race Wars" to "Cultural Hierarchy" / Pascal Blanchard, 220, 2.2.